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Jaime Carreon
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The road trip model – Stinson SR-9 Reliant, AMT 1/48

May 12, 2021 · in Aviation · · 15 · 2.1K

I am in Florida, having competed in the Top Gun RC meet a few weeks ago. My son lives not far away from where the meet was held, so we came to visit. It was only supposed to be for a few days, but has turned into a few weeks. It turned out that everyone here has to work or go to school during the day, which left me with nothing to do! Hadn't anticipated that - being retired is great until you're bored!

Enter my friend Jack, who just happens to live not far from my son. I met him several years ago through iModeler and we get together for lunch whenever I'm here, which usually turns into a trip to his home to yak about model airplanes, more model airplanes and life in general. He appreciated my predicament, and offered his traveling model box and a couple of kits to keep me occupied. The box was built for building at shows or model get-togethers and has what's needed to do a kit. In the box were a Stinson SR-9 and a Cessna 150. I'm a s****r for old airplanes and I've worked on too many 150's to find them interesting, so I chose the Stinson. So into the car went the travel box and Stinson and I was off.

The kit is the old Stinson. As far as I know, no one else kits this airplane. It shows its age, with some things like the cockpit being pretty good, while others such as the wheels and the propeller looking thing being not so good. The doors can be posed open, but in the name of simplicity, I left them closed. They didn't fit well, requiring a little filler. A lot of parts didn't fit well, but at least there aren't many of them!

Once I had the airplane assembled, I discovered the wheel spats were missing. Since they are needed to attach the wheels to the landing gear strut, I fabricated axles from straight pins, but really didn't like the kit wheels. The Stinson I worked on years ago had nice non-spatted spoked wheels, so I wanted to go that route. I figured a set of P-51 wheels would work, and Jack came to my rescue again with a set from his stash.

The box art depicts a white / gold / green scheme that really didn't do anything for me. I had planned this one to be red from the start, and once more, Jack came through with a rattle can of Tamiya Italian Red.

The model is now complete, though I still need to get decals for it, and finish up things like highlighting panel lines, picking out nav lights and such. I'll do that when I get it home next week. Build log is here if anyone is interested:

https://imodeler.com/groups/work-in-progress-aircraft/forum/topic/the-road-trip-model-stinson-sr-9-reliant/

And thanks for all your help, Jack! I appreciate it more than you know!

Reader reactions:
13  Awesome

6 additional images. Click to enlarge.


15 responses

  1. I think you have done a fine job on this build. These old AMT kits may look good on their box arts but they are a bit of a challenge to make it look right. Your build looks great!

  2. Nice looking build. It reminds of the Reliant a kid I went to high school with in the early 80’s father owned. He and I were both 16 and started taking flying lessons at the same time. One day he ran it into the corn field at the end of the grass runway. So when I see a Reliant I alway to this day remember watching this kid taxing in with corn stalks hanging off it!

  3. This is such a wonderful model of a classic old kit, my friend Jaime!
    The fact that you built it at a "remote" place makes it even more of an achievement.
    So nice that your firend helped you, I loved your build thread, too!
    Looking forward to your decalling!

  4. This Reliant looks fantastic, Jaime.
    Thanks for sharing your building progress in the WIP group.
    That storage box you show seems very handy and well organized.

  5. That's a pretty cool travel box.

    And the model's cool too. 🙂

  6. You gave done a great job of turning a basic kit into a real eye catcher.

  7. Nicely done Jaime, seems you can build them at home and on the road as well. Excellent.

  8. "Featuring Positive Alignment Locators!" I love that! I have the same kit, but re-boxed by Testors, I think. I hope mine turns out as well as yours, Jaime. @jetmex

  9. Now that's what friends are for! Nicely done (the both of you!).

  10. You KNOW Jamie, we're iModeler, not iPlasticModeler! Show us some of your RC stuff! (Especially if it's something good enough that you took it to the Top Gun nationals!)

    • Josh, here you go. We flew a 3W Bearcat with a 110 inch wingspan, powered by a Moki 5-cylinder radial. Good friend Wally owns the airplane and did the flying, I spotted and called the maneuvers for the scale flying program. We collaborated on the build, or rebuild, actually, as he got the airplane used and we refurbished and repainted it.

      Wally (in the blue shirt) and I (holding the tail) on the second round flight.

      The Bearcat in flight.

      The Texas contingent tent at Top Gun, Bearcat in the foreground. I did the paint and markings on the Skyraider, and built and painted the Zero. Wally got the SBD in a trade at the meet.

  11. Neat build. I remember doing that one mucho years back!

  12. Looks great! Love the red.

  13. That turned out beautiful!

  14. Great modelling story.

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